Directions and Additional Information
Please note: an off-street car park is available in Chequer Street, PE28 9JQ, where Heritage Trail Board number 1 is located. The Heritage Trail, which is on hard paths and level, begins and ends here.
Start at board number 1 at the car park and read about some of the famous people who have lived or passed through Fenstanton in the past.
Then turn left as you leave the car park.
As you walk along Chequer Street you will see a number of older houses on the right, varying in age from the 18th to the 20th century. There were once two pubs on the right, The Blue Cow and The Chequers, both now private houses. Part of the pub sign outside The Chequers remains.
The Blue Cow, with The Chequers in the background
On the left is Hall Green Lane, which originally led out to the village great common. The first property on your left was the old Literary Institute, built in the mid-1800s and used by the Congregationalists as a Sunday school. In living memory, it was used by the Scouts and Cubs and by an after-school club. Now it is a private residence.
Continue along Chequer Street to board number 2 on Chapel Green. Read about the United Reformed Church, The Manse, the Manor House and Honey Hill.
Additional information:
In front of you is the United Reformed Church. The Church is in the Early English style of architecture, built of Northamptonshire rock-faced stone, with Bath stone dressing. The roof is of a high pitch, open framed, and covered with tiles. The windows are glazed with lead church lights. The principal entrance is on the west side, by a deep projecting porch, which once had a bell turret fifty feet high.
Next to the United Reformed Church, on the left, is The Manse. Built in 1875 at the same time as the Church, it was designed to be a comfortable home for the serving minister. It was last used to house a minister of the church in 1979. In WWII it was used to house the local Land Army girls.
Behind you is the Manor House, a handsome late 17th century brick house with Dutch gables, bought by Lancelot (Capability) Brown in 1768. This is a two-storey house rendered in local red brick to eaves’ height. There is a fire plaque above the door. By the early 20th century, it was owned by Gertrude Peet, a Baptist minister’s daughter who, legend has it, had been jilted by a lord on the eve of her wedding. After her death, her executors discovered an unused wedding dress still wrapped in blue tissue paper.
Continue along Chequer Street to Honey Hill.
This short hill was the border of the old village green and the early village. It is recorded that it is named after the honey from bees, which for many centuries supplied the only means of sweetening the people’s food and making mead. The bees also provided the wax that was so necessary for use in the Roman Catholic church. Being situated by the church, the field once called ‘Dove-cot Field’ (now the cemetery) probably joined the ‘Bee-Garden field’ and formed part of the church property.
Honey Hill green was once a pond, filled in about 1970, used for many centuries to wash mud off carts. Wooden railings prevented horses going into the deep end.
The house immediately behind the pond was a bakehouse at one time and on the left was The Royal Oak, now a private residence. In the photo below you can see a water pump on the green, one of the many which used to be in the village.
Proceed slightly right on to School Lane, which leads from Honey Hill to the Parish Church.
The original Victorian cottages on the left in School Lane were built for the agricultural labourers who worked on the local farm; in recent years these have been updated and are now modern cottages. The buildings on the right are all of recent build and the land was once the vegetable gardens for the village school. The Victorian buildings at the end of School Lane on the right housed the original village school. It is now used as the Church Centre.
Continue on to the Parish Church, where you will find board number 3 just inside the gate. Read about the Church of St Peter and St Paul, then if time allows go inside the Church. Please see also additional information on the plinth outside the main door.
Further Information:
Parts of the church date from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, and perhaps the most striking feature is the chancel. Completed in the years 1347-52, it is an outstanding example of the decorated period of architecture. The chancel is slightly bigger than the nave. The window portraying episodes in the life of St Peter dates from the 1870s, and was completely removed and re-leaded in 2004-5. William de Loughton, the Rector at whose expense the chancel was built, is buried immediately in front of the present sanctuary steps (where the outline of the missing brass memorial is clearly visible). Stone for the nave came from Barnack (between Peterborough and Stamford) and was transported by barge up the river Nene to the Wash, down the river Great Ouse and along Hall Green Brook to Fenstanton.
There are two special features in the church. One is the memorial tablet on the north facing side of the church to Lancelot (Capability) Brown who is buried in the churchyard. He never lived in the village, retaining his main home, Wilderness House at Hampton Court, as it came with his job there as Chief Gardener. But he did involve himself in Huntingdonshire, becoming High Sheriff of the county in 1770.
Brown died in 1783, in Hertford Street, London, on the doorstep of his daughter Bridget’s house. Brown was originally buried in a vault in the Parish Church in Fenstanton, but in 1939 he and his wife were moved to the churchyard to make way for a new central heating boiler!
The second memorial is to John Howland, located on the west wall of the nave on the north side (immediately in front of the door to the kitchen). John Howland was the son of Henry Howland. John sailed to America in the Mayflower in 1620. Exhibits include the Mayflower ‘compact’ and a drawing of one of the original houses, now known as Howland House, in New Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Go out of the Church and walk to the church gate in front of you.
In front of you, on the corner of Church Lane and Church Street, is the new vicarage, built on a site that once housed a former vicarage and farmyard. After the original vicarage was pulled down the site became a group of smallholdings called ‘Small Holdings Yard’. In one corner once stood a large mulberry tree and it is more than likely that the fruit from this tree was used for the dessert of Queen Elizabeth I when she dined in Fenstanton with the Bishop of Ely. The present vicarage was built in the 1970s.
Until the latter part of the last century, the land next to the Church on the left all belonged to Church Farm. Photo: Church Farm in1982.
Leave the church and turn right into Church Lane.
On your right you will see a row of late 17th century cottages. These were originally built to house the agricultural labourers who worked on the church farm. House number 6 Church Lane is the only cottage in the row which has a thatched roof. This lane is probably the location of the original Iron Age settlement. The name Church Lane gives a sense of a narrow country lane, which it once was.
Past the cottages, on the right as you get to the bend, is the Particular Baptist’s chapel; it was opened for worship in 1980. This replaced an earlier chapel which was built in the 17th century. The earlier chapel (which was a number of converted cottages) was purchased in 1833. It was opposite the new building and now has a 21st century house on the site (number 15).
Opposite the Baptist’s Chapel you will see a small close of new houses called The Bumbles. When the old chapel was demolished and prior to these houses being built, an archaeological dig took place, which established that the site had been occupied since the Neolithic period and had remained mostly agricultural until the early 19th century.
Also opposite the Baptist’s Chapel are two old buildings. Number 13 is Snowdrop Cottage and number 11 was a former public house called the ‘Hearts of Oak’. Photo below.
Continuing on, you will see on your left a beautiful timber framed building. Known as ‘Windwhistle’ it is now divided into three separate homes, each with its own individual name. Built as a yeoman farmer’s home in the early 17th century, in the 18th century it became a Rookery (house of multi-occupation), housing around 40 people.
At the end of Church Lane follow the road round to your left past the United Reformed Church and enter Talls Lane.
The name Talls Lane is an early English name meaning it is neither long nor is it short!
Number 1 Talls Lane is a modern bungalow that was built on the site of an early posting inn called The Queen’s Head. This burned down in the 1920s and was not rebuilt.
Number 3 is Clover Cottage and the wooden barn to its righthand side is the site of a hanging suicide in the 19th century. It is said that the dead man’s ghost can still be seen there!
Next is Wimpole House. At one time all the adjacent land formed part of its small estate. All of the following houses have been built on this estate’s land. On your left are Yew Tree Cottage and Holly Cottage, two fine examples of 17th century agricultural workers’ cottages, now turned into modern homes.
As Talls Lane turns to the right, in front you will see the original coach house belonging to a former vicarage, now called Fen Manor, which is situated at the end of Talls Lane on the left, with its drive onto Church Street. The coach house has been converted into a private home. The Grade II listed old vicarage was built by the vicar, Thomas Bourdillon, between 1810 and 1850.
Number 19 on the right is called The Elms. This is a mid19th century house with a more modern house built in the garden called The Little Elms.
At the crossroads of Talls Lane, Church Street, Swan Road and Bell Lane, turn right into Bell Lane.
Bell Lane is a lane leading from the High Street to the Parish Church. Once described as, “One can picture the church bells being heard by the devout Roman Catholics in the High Street and this was the quickest way to obey the summons to get from the busy High Street of the village to the church”.
Immediately on your left, surrounded by trees, you will see a thatched house called ‘Mathyns’. This was built in the late 19th century by the Coote family of Oaklands House in Fenstanton High Street, for the head gardener of the estate. The large pond was dug to provide fresh fish for Oaklands House. Read more about Oaklands House later.
Most of the older properties in Bell Lane are of the Victorian period, interspaced with 20th century new builds.
The most interesting building is halfway down on your righthand side. This was originally a chicory factory, the very first of its kind in England. It has now been converted into a private home. The following newspaper report may be of interest.
“Fire destroyed a large part of the first chicory factory in England, that of J.A. Wootten of Cambridge, at Fenstanton. The caretaker had been using an American oil stove in which he burnt paraffin oil and found the room was on fire. Thinking to extinguish the flames, he threw water on the stove, which caused the oil to run all over the room and enabled the flames to spread rapidly. The brigade tried to pump water from a pond but found the pipes were frozen and the work of saving the factory had to be delayed while they were thawed with boiling water obtained in saucepans from neighbouring cottages. Fortunately, the machinery was saved, together with the bond room containing two tons of manufactured chicory”.
As you follow the road round to the left there is a row of terraced houses on the right. This was once the site of the Bell Inn, see photo below. Bell Lane was not named after the pub; rather the pub was named after the lane.
Number 3 Bell Lane is an early 19th century double fronted house with grade 2 listing.
At the end of Bell Lane, cross High Street and use the access to a new development referred to locally as the ‘dairy site’. Walk straight on as far as Crest Drive. Here you will find board number 4. As you may have guessed, this is the site of a former dairy and the board explains the history of the site.
Then continue left along Crest Drive to its junction with Cambridge Road.
On the opposite side of Cambridge Road is a new development known as ‘The Park’. During its construction archaeologists removed the topsoil from the entire site, to find considerable evidence of Roman occupation, including buildings, field boundary ditches and trackways. The archaeologists concluded that this was the site of a Roman Mansio. Archaeologists believe that one of the skeletons found, dated between AD 130-360, is a likely example of crucifixion. This is the only known crucifixion in the British Isles and the second reported worldwide! It is now displayed in the British Museum and was the subject of a television documentary.
Now turn left into Cambridge Road and then almost immediately turn left again into Conington Road, where you will find board number 5. Read about The Park and its history.
Walk along Conington Road to the crossroads at the end.
At the end, on your right, is an old lodge which was the gatehouse (Porter’s Lodge) for the now demolished Oaklands House behind it. Built in 1701, Oaklands House was the home of the Coote family until 1906. It was demolished in 1970 and a small development of homes was built in its place, now known as Oaklands.
Photo: Oaklands Lodge with Oaklands House behind.
The junction of Conington Road, Swan Road and High Street was the original village entry point from the Cambridge direction.
At this junction there are two interesting buildings.
On the right in Swan Road opposite, is thatched Swan Cottage, an early 18th century grade 2 listed building. Originally built as two cottages for gardeners working on the Oaklands estate, it was later converted into a public house. In WWII The Swan public house was used to billet military officers from the local airbases.
The name Swan Lane (now Swan Road) has an interesting history, it means a lane used by the swans as they travel from one marshy place to another. The Pinder (keeper of the swans) would most probably have lived in this lane. The office of Pinder has now lapsed in the village.
On the left of Swan Road, at the time of writing (July 2024), stands a Tudor style building, still known as the Tudor Hotel, which is to be replaced very soon with modern houses. Originally called the Swiss Cottage Tea Rooms, it was built on the site of the kitchen garden of Oaklands House in the late 1920s. This was a single storey building with beautiful gardens and was a famous stopping-off place for cycle clubs and motorists before WWII. In WWII it was used to billet military officers. After WWII a second floor and two ground floor extensions were added to form the building that you can still see at the moment.
In the middle of the last century The Tudor Hotel was home to for a while to Eric Morecambe, (John Eric Bartholomew) the famous comedian.
Eric Morecambe had heart bypass surgery at Papworth Hospital in Papworth Everard. As his home was in Surrey and he found the travel distressing, he bought the Tudor Hotel as a base for his many visits to Papworth Hospital. His mother, Bartholomew, known as Sadie, ran the Tudor while Eric recuperated from his operation. Eric lived in the Tudor for quite some time and was well known in the village.
Turn left and walk along High Street.
The first major building on your left is The Maltings. This was the brewery owner’s house and is presently painted yellow. This is immediately followed by the old brewery building itself and the original sign ‘Fenstanton Brewery’ is still visible.
The brewery was founded in 1830 by John Coote, father of Thomas Coote who owned Oaklands House. There was a big fire in 1901, after which brewing ceased. After the fire the brewery was used as a bottling depot and in 1906 the brewery was sold and converted into a house.
Continue walking and on the other side of the road you will see an early 19th century building called The Lindons. Originally built as a family home, in the 20th century it became an orphanage and in WII it housed evacuees from London. Today it is the Ladybird Nursery. Also on that side of the road you will see a large early 19th century building, once two separate buildings with a shop, which is now a large family home.
On the left, after the Little Piggy restaurant, which present day residents remember as Giffords Bakers, there is a Georgian style house called Yewhurst. Built as a family home for Peter Cowling, its original name was Petersfield. Peter Cowling was a major landowner.
Over the years there have been many shops and businesses in Fenstanton High Street. Some of them are captured in the photos below.
Hewson’s shop, now the pharmacy, which sold tobacco, groceries and paraffin and was also the lending library.
Knight’s Garage, High Street
Ash’s shop, to your right, was once King’s Stores from 1944 to 1976. The thatched roof shop next to Ash’s Stores was once Eva King’s wool shop, unfortunately it burnt down in 1965. Unfortunately it didn’t survive the fire that broke out next door at Giffords bakery in 1965. And whilst shortly after Giffords rebuild their bakery, which today is occupied by the Fairy Dogmother, the little wool shop was lost forever. The entrance to Keith Wright’s Dairy was opposite King’s Stores.
Continue walking until you see on the other side of the street a former pub, the Crown (more recently the Crown & Pipes), a late Victorian building. Most of the remaining buildings on that side of the High Street are 18th and 19th century.
Further along High Street on the left is the Duchess public house and restaurant. This building, until recent years known as The George, is early 18th century but it stands on a site that was a posting inn as early as the Tudor period and most probably well before that.
The next two buildings were both originally public houses. The first building, now trading as Cream Rose, was an old posting house called the Valiant Trooper and the next (now a private home) was the Rose & Crown.
On the opposite side of High Street at this point stood the blacksmith’s shop, photo below.
When you arrive at the Clock Tower look for the next two history information boards. Board number 6 has information about the Village Pond. Board Number 7 has information about the Clock Tower and old Market Place.
Feast week at the Clock Tower
Then continue walking past the clock tower to Huntingdon Road.
Until recently the first building on the left was the King William IV public house (numbers 1 and 3 Huntingdon Road), affectionately known as the “King Bill”. Two distinct buildings make up this former public house, on the left a 17th century farm worker’s cottage and on the right an 18th century house.
The next building is Grove House, which is described on board number 6.
Next is Vernon House, which is a late 18th century building. Once classed as one of the largest houses in the village, its grounds extended to more than three acres. The size of the land was reduced when the first village bypass cut through the gardens.